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Bill has $3M annual impact to schools serving military districts

Measure retaining extra student count likely to pass both houses

Superintendent Ronald Walker urged a Senate committee Friday to consider the circumstance of a Geary County fourth-grader when deciding how to vote on a bill dedicating extra state aid to schools with heavy enrollment of transient military dependents.

"This young man had walked up to me," said Walker, who leads Unified School District 475 in Junction City. "He said, 'Mr. Walker, can you teach me to be a man?' I was stunned by the question and replied, 'Why do you ask?'

"He said, 'My dad was killed in Iraq last night and before he left he told me if anything happened to him, I had to take care of my family.' I had no idea he was carrying the weight of the world on his back."

Walker shared this agonizing slice of life in a military-rich school district to lend support for House Bill 2109, which cleared the House and sits in the Senate Education Committee. The bill is expected to be endorsed by the Senate and move to the desk of Gov. Sam Brownback.

The bill would extend for five years a Kansas law allowing districts surrounding military installations to conduct two student enrollment counts. The standard survey in September that shapes K-12 appropriations would be supplemented with a follow-up tally in February.

Under the law due to expire this year, the double count determines allocation of $3 million annually in 15 to 20 school districts with high turnover rates tied to the ebb and flow of children of active-duty military personnel.

In Junction City, for example, student transfers can range from 40 percent to 70 percent annually. Manhattan-Ogden USD 383's schools serve 1,300 military students, with fluctuation between September and February ranging in recent years from 90 to 200 students.

Student turnover in Fort Leavenworth's USD 207 is about 50 percent each year. Over a three-year period, the Fort Leavenworth school's enrollment replenishes itself at a rate of 93 percent.

"It is a rare event when a student can claim to have completed kindergarten through ninth grade in our district," said Keith Mispagel, superintendent of the Fort Leavenworth district. "The military 'second count' provides additional budget authority to address the frequent mid-year student enrollment and all costs associated with this unpredictable fluctuation."

Mispagel's district serves family members of officers attending the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff College. Each class has 1,400 U.S. officers and 100 international officers from more than 50 countries.

Sen. Steve Abrams, an Arkansas City Republican and chairman of the Senate committee, said he expected the bill to be forwarded next week to the Senate. He anticipated little opposition in the Senate because members understood challenges of serving such a transient population.

"The amount of turnover is tremendous," Abrams said. "It's much more than a traditional school."

Sen. Vicki Schmidt, R-Topeka and a member of the committee, said she would support the legislation.

"It's one of the things we can do in this state to support military families," Schmidt said. "It's important to think of those who serve our country."